This invention relates to plumbing and to plumbing fixtures and tools.
Plumbing comprises the pipes, fixtures, and other apparatus of a water, gas, or sewage system of a building. Installing plumbing apparatus must be carefully done, for it can prove difficult and expensive to fix leaks after the building construction is complete. One of the most important features of plumbing installations is the angle valve. Angle valves provide the means for directing the flow of gas, water or sewage through the building. Although the prior art is replete with various specialized tools designed to hasten and ensure proper plumbing fixture installation, little effort has been directed toward improved apparatus specifically designed to hasten angle valve installation and to improved angle valve constructions and associated useful combinations. Given this deficiency in the art, the need for certain new and useful improvements is evident.
The above problems and others are at least partially solved and the above purposes and others realized in a new and improved apparatus comprising, in combination, a plumbing fixture comprising a channeled body having an open branch way leading to a stem way and a ferrule located in the open branch way and constructed of a first material, and an implement comprising an extension fixed to a handled body and positioned within the open branch way and through the ferrule for bracing the plumbing fixture in response to a force exerted against the handled body. The extension is constructed of a second material that is softer than the first material of the ferrule for preventing the ferrule from becoming damaged in response to contact with the extension and this is an essential feature of the invention. In this embodiment, the extension is fixed apart from, and substantially parallel to, a face of the handled body, and comprises an elongate sleeve constructed of the second material and supported by an elongate member fixed to the handled body.
In another useful embodiment, the invention proposes apparatus comprising a plumbing fixture comprising a channeled body having an open branch way leading to a stem way and a ferrule located in the open branch way and constructed of a first material, and an implement comprising an extension fixed to a handled body in opposition to a face of the handled body, the face positioned against the plumbing fixture and the extension positioned within the open branch way and through the ferrule for bracing the plumbing fixture in response to a force exerted against the handled body. The extension is constructed of a second material that is softer than the first material of the ferrule for preventing the ferrule from becoming damaged in response to contact with the extension and this is an essential feature of the invention. In this embodiment, the extension is substantially parallel to the face and comprises an elongate sleeve constructed of the second material and supported by an elongate member fixed to the handled body.
In yet another useful embodiment, the invention proposes a method comprising steps of a)providing a plumbing fixture comprising a channeled body having an open branch way leading to a stem way and a ferrule located in the open branch way and constructed of a first material, b)providing an implement comprising an extension that is i)constructed of a second material that is softer than the first material and ii)fixed to a handled body, c)positioning the extension within the open branch way and through the ferrule, and d)bracing the plumbing fixture by exerting a force against the handled body. Because the extension is constructed of a second material that is softer than the first material of the ferrule, the ferrule is prevented from becoming damaged in response to contact with the extension and this is an essential feature of the invention.